Brainstorm

Talk has been out of control for some time and most of the regular helpful posters have left it. It is slowly getting worse and everyone is complaining about it. There are atleast 1 or 2 posts a week claiming an update is out and they run for a few hundred posts before the next OMG update post comes out. There are fake claim 19 page posts talking about porn. On top of personal insults, attacks, and flaming like I have never seen on Talk. I think most people will agree something needs to be done before talk is to far gone to save.

Talk needs more moderation that is all their is to it we need people who are willing to get on and delete or move messages. We need Global moderators to control other mods and to move stuff around globaly. I will post my idea from my blog as the first solution if you have a better idea please add it as a solution as well.

Solutions for this brainstorm

Solution #1: 3 Tiers Moderation System for t.m.o

4 Global Moderators – Talk, Software, OS/Platform, DevicesWould have the ability to moderate entire site but will be head moderator for one of the main sections of t.m.o. Global Moderators will be over the moderators of the subsections in their main section.

20 ModeratorsSome sections need more than 1 moderator (Community, General, Applications, ect.)Some sections like old OS/Platforms would be covered by someone who has another section as well.

These moderators will have to be active and if they are not doing their job will be removed as moderators. Also Global Moderators will make sure their Moderators don’t get out of hand. They will be Moderating the Moderators.

We also either need to start deleting posts that are attacks on other people or their work. I also think that any post that is not constructive like one that basically said “Blank Application is stupid fix it” should either be deleted or moved to a new section on forums for this kind of post that are useless. Then make that section not show up in newposts.

The number of regular moderators really depends on how well our moderatiors are doing and how many sections they are willing to take.

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Solution #2: Implement some basic rules, and make them easily findable by the community

Right now there do not appear to be any formally (or informally, for that matter) defined rules of conduct for talk.maemo.org. I would propose that a very basic ruleset (consisting simply of basic etiquette stuff - no flaming, no trolling, etc.) ought to be published and made available. It's not exactly new or innovative for folks used to internet messaging forums, but it does at least provide a baseline of what sort of behavior is expected.

This could also potentially help to clarify otherwise undefined situations, such as the legality question w/r/t the PR 1.2 leak (in which there was no apparent clarification on how t.m.o should react to the situation until Reggie showed up and cleaned house).

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Solution #3: Implement vBulletin's "infraction points" system

vBulletin (the software which is apparently running t.m.o) has an Infraction Points system (some admin-level documentation available at http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/user_infractions_intro) which is advertised as a way to automate misbehavior, but also allows for more fine-grained feedback from moderators to users. It also appears to log specific offenses, which would be useful in keeping things coordinated between moderators (as it would be difficult to have so many new people all on the same page at once otherwise). This system does not appear to be currently implemented on t.m.o (if it is, I can't see it, and I've yet to annoy someone sufficiently to receive such an infraction ;) ).

This would probably have the prerequisite of a standard set of rules, but most of them would be as per Solution #2 (i.e. "no flaming, no trolling, no being a jerk" ;) ).